[Caelum's Scrapbook] Use Your Words.

[Tabarnac]

Guess who. Whoa, sorry; it's big. :

[Caelum]

Thanks, Indigo! I need to go buy one of those. And, Dani, where did you find that? That is absolutely her. I’ve a riddle for whomever would like to answer it. If you google it, I will be sadface. Not that I’ll know unless you tell me, but somewhere deep down inside I will get all emo. What has forests but no trees, rivers but no waters, and cities but no buildings? Now that I know the answer, it's ridiculously simple; but I confess I sat here for ten minutes completely bloody stumped until an associate took pity.

[Gossamer]

I had it before I was done reading it, but that's just because I've had them on my brain lately and have been making a lot of them. Plus its a pretty common riddle.

[Faraluun]

Possible answer below?

spoilerA map?

[Laszlo]

Finally read those threads. Ugh, so amazing. It inspired me to make this image, using the uncropped picture Duvalyon uses for his avatar.

[Toli Armitage]

Jen, I had a feeling you'd know it in a heartbeat; and Faraluun, you're right in one! The answer is: a map. Lazlo, you just made my bloody day. God, that man is smokin'. I am sick. Blerg. My brain doesn't want to let me write. I was able to beat it into work on a character diamond for my least played PC, one Toli Armitage. I was assisting someone with the creation of their first one, so I thought maybe I'd go through the whole process here in case anyone was interested. Character Diamond for Toli. First, I listed what adjectives I felt were applicable. honorable ambitious survivalist convincing eloquent magnetic charming vicious strategic vivid courageous ruthless intelligent inspiring reckless determined engaging patient vengeful bold wounded repentant faithful Next, I grouped them into four word flocks. Ha, a murder of traits? Something like that. Anyway. The only hard and fast rule regarding grouping is that they make sense to me (and, you know, the character). 1 - honorable, faithful, vivid, engaging, courageous, magnetic 2 - ambitious, determined, patient, inspiring, charming 3 - vicious, reckless, wounded, vengeful, survivalist 4 - strategic, intelligent, ruthless, bold, convincing This is the hard part, or it always is for me. I select one word out of each group to essentially represent the group as a whole. I want the word that isn't just true, but truer than true. The one that I hear and is undeniably Toli, no questions asked. 1 - faithful 2 - ambitious 3 - vicious 4 - strategic Finally, I assign the above four words into the (long) aforementioned positions: Permanent (Positive and Negative) and Situational (Positive and Negative). Permanent: Faithful (+), Ambitious (-) Situational: Strategic (+), Vicious (-) Oh! Look. I don't like that. Fortunately, that's okay. I can change it. I am, in fact, encouraged by Toli himself who is squinting at me in my head to change it. So let's see. What is the weakness? What isn't perfect? Ah ha. Got it. Permanent: Magnetic (+), Ambitious (-) Situational: Bold (+), Vicious (-) I like that better. A lot better. And you know what? It might change again when I get down to writing out the trait bios. By that I mean when I write out a brief explanation of each trait and why it is what it is, et cetera. I won't do that right now because, right, I'm sick and on drugs and I think this is as much as I can handle right this minute. The point, however, is now I have a blueprint drafted and once over revised. I can keep revising it until it's perfect and once it is, then I'm going to build an entire story around it. You have to stick to your character diamond once you have perfected it. That's so very important. It will become the answer to a million questions, everything from how will your character react to a certain situation to what may help or hinder his goals. If you want a plot (remember: Goal + Conflict = Plot), and you have your Goal but you don't feel as if the conflicts are either enough, varied or possessed of much depth, look right at your character diamond. Read it. Something will jump out at you to help hinder. Or, on the flip side of your character needing an assist, help. Okay, that's all for now. - katie.

[Caelum]

Crap, no. This: Permanent: Honorable (+), Ambitious (-) Situational: Wounded (+), Ruthless (-) Yeah. I'm going to change this about six more times until it works. Point in case: that's totally okay, y'all. Trust me. ...I'm a doctor.

[Laszlo]

As requested.



He's so pretty.

[Duvalyon Hellebore]

Nooooooooooooo!

[Caelum]

A quick PSA. Everybody who is waiting on a PM reply, a modded thread reply, or a PC thread reply from me, please, please, please know that I am not ignoring you or blowing you off. I promise I still love y’all and that I love what we’re doing too. All of it. I have a lot going on right now. It’s time consuming and head-space crowding and it isn’t really slowing down. I am tackling the pile one PM and thread at a time, but there’s quite a lot so it might take a bit for me to find my way to yours. I regret to say that I have no actual order of priority because if I start categorizing it that way then I’ll get overwhelmed because the fun will get sucked right out; and, of course, we’re all doing this because it’s fun. Sometimes I’m inspired more for one PC, mine or one for whom I’m modding, than another; and sometimes I just need a little quiet time with a character to remind me how much I love writing. Other times I want to write about writing like a bore, but, hey, we're all flawed. It’s got nothing to do with favoritism. It’s just got to do with me. This is where I typically would say if there is something particularly pressing and important that you really need me to address sooner rather than later to let me know. I’m not going to say that, though, because it will probably annoy me if people start telling me how much more important their thread is than everyone elses. I hate when that happens, but so it is. I am still here. I am still writing! And I totally remember you. Now I’m going to tell you that I will be gone again this coming weekend. It is a much needed vacation wherein I get to witness friends of mine being married and hang out with a lot of other really awesome people whom I don’t get to see often. By the way, Duvalyon? Love the pearls. Write on, katie.